The present invention pertains to dampers. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a damper formed from various silicone impregnated and silicone containing components.
Dampers are used in various assemblies to control the movement of an object. For example, damper devices are used in automobiles to dampen the movement of grab handles, gloves box doors and the like.
A typical damper includes a housing or body, a rotor positioned in the housing, a damping fluid between the rotor and housing and a seal positioned between the housing and the body to maintain the fluid in the space between the housing and the rotor and to prevent contamination of the fluid.
One current damper design uses a housing formed from DELRIN® acetal, a rotor formed from VYDYNE® nylon resin a silicone seal (having a durometer of 70) and a damping fluid. While this damper functions well generally, there can be a fairly high amount of friction generated between the housing, seal and rotor. This can be even more problematic in that the friction can result in varying torque responses and as such, inconsistent damper function.
Accordingly, there is a need for a damper in which the amount of friction between the damper components is reduced. Desirably, such damper is configured to readily replace (e.g., fit in place of) known dampers. More desirably, such a damper is assembled from readily commercially available materials in a cost effective manner. Most desirably, such a damper exhibits consistent damping characteristics.